A Harrisburg man is headed to trial on charges that he helped a friend obtain a fatal dose of heroin.

(file)

Whenever Robert Markel ran out of his prescribed pain medications, he turned to an old friend, David Nevius Jr., for help in buying heroin, a state trooper testified Monday.

And that, Trooper James Fisher said, is what killed Markel in the basement of a Middle Paxton Township home in June of 2016.

It is also what placed Nevius in a courtroom at the Dauphin County Prison for a preliminary hearing on charges, including drug delivery resulting in death, for Markel's demise.

Fisher was the only witness called by Deputy District Attorney Ryan Shovlin. When he finished, District Judge David O'Leary sent the charges against Nevius on to county court for trial.

The trooper said the charges the Harrisburg man faces are based largely on information from Markel's wife, Denalu, and from Nevius' girlfriend.

A distraught Denalu Markel told him her husband arranged to meet Nevius at the Hardee's restaurant in Dauphin on June 2, Fisher said. The Markels then drove with Nevius to 13th and Market streets in Harrisburg.

Denalu Markel said her 56-year-old husband, who was in pain from a work injury, gave Nevius $120, the trooper testified. He said she claimed Nevius went into a nearby building and returned with two plastic bags of heroin.

According to Denalu Markel, Nevius and Robert Markel each snorted some of the drug, Fisher said.

Hours later, Robert Markel was found lying face-down and dead on a couch. Alcohol, prescription medications and morphine, an element of heroin, were found in his bloodstream, the trooper said.

Questioned by Public Defender, Suzanne Edwards, Fisher said Denalu Markel told him she didn't see her husband ingest his fatal overdose.

No markings were found on a plastic bag found in the home that was believed to have contained heroin, he said, noting that a small amount of heroin powder was found on a night stand in the house.

An attempt to find the person who sold the heroin to Nevius failed, the trooper said.

Edwards asked O'Leary to allow Nevius to go free on unsecured bail pending trial. The judge refused, keeping Nevius' $250,000 bail in place after Shovlin objected to any reduction.

"This is a death case," the prosecutor said.

Robert Markel is just one of the rising number of victims of an opioid addiction crisis that is sweeping the state and the nation. His story is typical of addicts who turn from prescription medications to heroin.